Protective cover for bowling shoes



June 26, 1962 A. G. HILKEMEYER PROTECTEEVE COVER FOR BOWLING SHOES Filed March 30, 1961 INVENTOR. ALEX G. H/LKEMHER 3,040,451 PROTECTIVE COVER FQR BOWLING SHOES Alex G. Hillremeyer, 2902 E. Eastland St., Tucson, Ariz. Filed Mar. 30, 1961, Ser. No. 99,603 1 Claim. (Cl. 367.5)

This invention relates to an article of foot wear. More particularly the invention relates to a device for protecting the soles of bowling shoes.

Sincethe soles of howling shoes must be kept clean and free of foreign matter, it is customary for bowlers to wear their street shoes to the bowling alley and change into bowling shoes when they are ready to bowl.

This creates a problem in league bowling because the members of individual teams do not change into their bowling shoes until it is their turn to start a game. Therefore, when a first team has completed its contest and it is time for a second team to start its series of games, proceedings are delayed as much as one half an hour while the members of the second team change shoes.

It is an object of my invention to provide a protective covering for bowling shoes which will facilitate wearing the shoes without damaging the soles of the shoes.

Another object of the invention is to provide a protective cover for the soles of bowling shoes which is relatively inexpensive to make, convenient to wear and which may be folded up and put into the bowlers pocket or purse when not in use.

These and other objects will be apparent from the detailed specification which follows.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a bowling shoe showing a protective cover of my invention in use thereon; and

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the protective cover of' cut so that it has alternate projections or peaks 11 and valleys 12. The peaks 11 extend above the sole of the shoe and are slit as shown at 13 to receive an elastic band 14 7 United States Patent which is short enough to permit the projections 11 to fit snugly and tightly against the upper portion of the bowling shoe 20.

The user of the protective cover 10 may put one on each of his shoes 20 at home and thus obviate the necessity of carrying the bowling shoes to the bowling alley and putting them on there.

When not-in use the protective cover 10 may be folded up and put in the users pocket or purse.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that the device of the present invention provides a protective cover for bowling shoes which is relatively inexpensive to make and convenient to use. It is especially useful as a time saver in those situations where league bowling necessitates a good many games by different teams in one evening.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle of my invention, and have illustrated and described what I now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have it understood that, within the scope of the appended claim, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

A protective cover for bowling shoes comprising a shoe engaging portion having projections uniformly spaced about its entire periphery, and an endless elastic band threaded through said projections, said elastic band being substantially shorter than the periphery of said shoe engaging portion, whereby said projections are bunched together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,187,778 Paskett June 20, 1916 1,877,080 Teshima Sept. 13, 1932 2,246,562 Whitley June 24, 1941 2,305,926 Kohler Dec. 22, 1942 2,537,602 Potvin Jan. 9, 1951 2,682,713 Eiger July 6, 1954 3,012,343 Dinkel Dec. 12, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 562,129 Germany Oct. 21, 1932 803,023 .Germany Feb. 26, 1951 

